Valued
by Eternity Crystal
Summary: People arrive home from a mission and some are dead, the sixth seat having been in charge of the mission. Upon hearing the news, Hisugaya discovers how valuable his sixth seat is to him. -HitsuxOC-


**Valued**

It was raining hard that day in Soul Society. Each rain drop blurred into lines pounding hard onto the earth, rippling into puddles that varied in size. The fields were completely muddy and the trees provided little shelter as the water dripped off the branches, or ran through the gaps. Hardly anyone was outside, only the hardcore people were training outside then, with a few newbies here and there.

Work was also slow that day. Nobody wanted to go outside and deliver paperwork or mail or anything. So when everything was finished, the Tenth Division taicho, Hitsugaya Toshiro, sat there at his desk, staring into space. And he was content. It was the first bit of peace and quiet he'd had all day, seeing as his fukutaicho was almost always grating on his nerves. And as, for once, Matsumoto Rangiku had gotten all her work done for the day; she was now off drinking with some of the other fukutaicho.

The door rattling open minutes later irked Toshiro to no end because he had finally gotten time alone with his thoughts. Although not the best of company, it was company he preferred most of the time. There were exceptions to this rule…

Toshiro turned his head towards the door to see who it was and what they wanted. He hoped they would be gone quickly, though that would most likely be the case. That would be because there was very little to do unless someone wanted to brave the outside world. And that was highly _unlikely_. His sage colored eyes widened at what he saw.

It was a sober looking Matsumoto, her hand gripping the side of the door and other dangling at her side. Why was she here? Wasn't she supposed to be away and drunk by now? Her serious face gazed at Toshiro's for a moment before stepping into the office. She stopped when she was right in front of his desk, and stared down at him. This was a rare face indeed, in such peaceful times anyway, and so it meant that whatever news she had would not be good. Toshiro braced himself as Matsumoto opened her mouth to speak.

"Mai-chan's group has returned early. They had been attacked by an overwhelming number of Hollows plus a Gillian. The reinforcements got there just in time to save the rest, sir. Once the Hollows were taken care of, they brought back the rest of Mai-chan's group, severely injured."

Beyond that, Matsumoto's words were lost to Toshiro because he had risen from his chair at his desk and dashed out the door. He used shunpo to get to the Fourth Division in his rush to get there. His mind was on one track as he traversed as quickly as possible. He had to see if Mai was there, he just had to. He wouldn't be able to stand it if she was one of the ones whose lives were lost. Mai was special to him, as reluctant as he was to admit it. She was important.

Toshiro remembered the first moment he laid eyes upon Mai. She was newly accepted into the Gotei Thirteen and nervous as could possibly be. She had also been accepted as the sixth seat of the Tenth Division, and so was determined to do a good job. When she was delivering a stack of paperwork to Toshiro's office, she had tripped part way into the office, and fell, sending the paperwork flying in all directions like confetti. Very important confetti. Toshiro sighed at the klutzy action, watching the all important paperwork scatter.

Toshiro remembered seeing Mai's face turn a brilliant shade of scarlet as she stuttered out an apology and quickly gathered the fallen papers. He also remembered thinking as Mai put down the papers on his desk, excused herself without looking at him, and stumbled out of the room that he had a long life ahead of him.

Toshiro saw her semi-frequently after that. And he learned quite a few things about Mai like how she was an excellent swordsman and lacked in the area of kido. At least she didn't blow things up every time she attempted to use it. She was responsible for the most part, and she loved to go out and hang out with her friends. She also, he heard from some other shinigami that Mai often talked to, had low alcohol tolerance, therefore often avoided it. Quite the opposite from his fukutaicho.

After a couple of years into her service, Mai had been endangered by some drunken Rukongai citizens in one of the higher numbered districts. She would have been killed if Toshiro hadn't heard her scream. He had been strolling through other districts somewhat nearby. He didn't have to kill them, thank goodness, but he did beat them pretty badly. They were fairly persistent.

Once that ordeal was over, Mai had insisted on making it up to Toshiro. Though Toshiro had told her to forget about it, that it was his duty, Mai would not be deterred. She was constantly hanging around, insisting on doing something to make it up to him. He often thought of telling her to leave him alone, but he doubted that it would work for some odd reason. At some point, Toshiro didn't know when, Mai's insistence on making up for him saving her life turned into wanting to be around him because she liked him. As a friend kind of way. And Toshiro didn't mind.

Toshiro knew that people picked up on it, but he didn't care. He liked Mai. He didn't mind having his sixth seat around. Eventually they got to the point where they could even be called friends. Toshiro's relationship with Mai continuously evolved over time and Toshiro lost track of it all together. Now, as he ran towards the Fourth Division, it all became clear, the reasons behind his chaotic feelings that he couldn't interpret, and a new sense of urgency overcame him and Toshiro pushed himself to go faster.

"Mai!" Toshiro exclaimed as he slammed the door to Mai's recovery room open. He saw Mai's head turned towards him, jewel toned eyes widened in surprise.

"Toshiro-taicho," she greeted with her surprise heavily evident in her voice. "What're you doing here?"

Toshiro entered the room, closing the door behind him so they wouldn't be disturbed. He finally got an eyeful of the girl. Her hair was damp, probably from the heavy rain she was dragged through, and there was a bandage across her forehead, a cast on her right arm, bandages covering wounds on her left arm and band-aids beneath her collarbone. Not to mention all the heavy bruises and all the unseen damage beneath the sheet. Toshiro suddenly thought that he didn't want to know the extent of the injuries.

"I came here to check on you, obviously," Toshiro replied coolly, and he went to sit in a chair beside Mai's bed.

"Ah," Mai said in a polite tone. It was as if this wasn't important to her. He was slightly irked by this assumption.

"Care to tell me what happened?" he asked.

"Don't you already know?" Mai returned rudely, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Toshiro was slightly surprised by her attitude.

"It's better to hear it straight from the horse's mouth," Toshiro replied simply.

"Unfortunately, I'm not a horse," Mai returned, still ticked off about who knows what. Toshiro sighed; this was going to be an annoying confrontation, something he wasn't really expecting.

"What's wrong, Mai?" Point blank. Always a good method.

"Oh, I don't know, I just nearly died and lost about half the lives under me _because_ of me. Really, if I was better at kido I wouldn't be stuck here and more people would be _alive_."

So that was it. Toshiro looked at Mai, but Mai was glaring hard at the ceiling, as if it was the ceiling's fault that all this happened. Toshiro waited patiently until Mai finally looked at him. Her glare softened slightly, but she continued to glare at her taicho anyway.

"It happens, Mai. None of us ever want it to happen, but it happens anyway. And it will continue to happen. But you must realize that it's not your fault. You did what you could, and that's all that matters."

Mai turned her head away from Toshiro as soon as he finished his speech. It hurt Toshiro when she did that, so he forced Mai to look at him, taking her face in his hands and turning it towards him. Mai's glare was instantly melted into a surprise look. Something must've shown on Toshiro's face to make Mai do that. Toshiro took his hands away, now that he properly held Mai's attention.

"Listen to me, Mai. It wasn't your fault. It's happened to me before, and I had to remind myself that it wasn't my fault, because it actually wasn't. And I know that this isn't your fault, either."

Toshiro's blunt words were finally starting to take an effect on the injured girl. Her eyes welled up with tears, and she brought the backs of her hands to her eyes to try and wipe them away as soon as they fell down her face. Toshiro's face softened as he saw this important girl cry, getting all her emotions out there on the table. Once she was done a few minutes later, and her face was red and puffy and was sniffing like mad, she gave Toshiro a weak smile. Toshiro returned it with one of his own rare ones.

"Thank you, Toshiro-taicho," Mai sniffled. It looked as if Mai was about to say more, but suddenly the door burst open and a flood of people came rushing in: all of Mai's friends. They crowded around Mai's bed, subsequently pushing Toshiro back, despite the fact that he was a taicho. Mai turned her head and saw an opening through the people, and through that hole she saw Toshiro, about to turn around to leave. Silently, she begged her superior officer to stay.

Toshiro obeyed with a hint of a smirk on his face. Whether it was from her scared look because of all the people around her or…that was probably it. Mai's eye twitched in annoyance at his amusement at her expense. Fine then, she'll just shock him out of that. So, mouthing the words carefully so that he would understand, she said "I love you, Toshiro."

Hitsugaya Toshiro was indeed shocked. One, he'd never expected Mai would ever say that if she had felt that way, and two; he never expected that she would ever feel that way. Once the shock wore off, though, a smile warmed his usually cold face, and mouthed back, "I love you, too."


End file.
